Parched
Artists: Jesse Boylan with Adam John Cullen, Nici Cumpston, Alvin Darcy, Treahna Hamm, Ponch Hawkes, Yaseera Moosa with Bridget Chappell, and Shirely Purdie
The exhibition draws together artworks from across Australia, with an eye to the southeast, to explore representations of drought.
As what was formerly categorised as ‘extreme weather’ increasingly becomes our every day, how can we imagine, prepare for, and adapt to a changed climate?
Drought, in particular, is often seen as a defining characteristic of Australian settler folklore. To expand our understanding of how drought is experienced and represented across timescales, this exhibition gathers First Nations knowledge and settler perspectives. From the impact of flood and drought on Country, to the personal and economic toll felt by framers, to soil as a carrier of information and the slow violence of dust, the artworks reflect on the ongoing impacts of a changed climate and how we might best respond.
This exhibition is one of the outcomes of the La Trobe University interdisciplinary research project Parched: Cultures of Drought in Regional Victoria which explores how we can more meaningfully understand drought to help us towards a just climate transition.
Learn more about the artists and the exhibition in the exhibition guide [PDF 193.8 KB] and the list of works [PDF 120.5 KB].
Photographs courtesy of Christo Crocker
